"For me, a lot of it is just the confidence that we're doing it right as we grow, that we're not screwing stuff up, and that we have an outside third-party wisdom on our council."
— , Director of Operations
The Challenge
Christina Hayes is the Director of Operations at Journey Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a congregation founded in 2007 that has grown from a small group meeting in a living room into a thriving church body in the heart of the city.
That growth created a challenge familiar to many flourishing churches: as the congregation expanded, so did the complexity of the finances. Christina and her team didn't realize just how complex the books had become until their long-time bookkeeper put in her two weeks' notice.
"As she was leaving, we realized she knew enough for when we were small. But we had grown so much that as we started diving into the books a little bit more after she left, we were left thinking, 'What has she done?'"
The team needed someone with real experience and expertise quickly. Hiring locally and going through a full interview process wasn't an option, and finance wasn't either Christina's or her boss's direct area of expertise. They needed an outside set of eyes they could trust to make sure things were being done the right way as the church kept growing.
"We both knew enough to say, 'I don't think that's right, but I don't know how to do it.'"
Knowing she needed both expertise and speed, Christina reached out to BELAY on behalf of Journey Church.
The Solution
BELAY paired Journey Church with their first BELAY Bookkeeper, Trisha. Onboarding was smooth, and Trisha quickly fit into the team, a personality match that gave Christina immediate relief.
"The immediate relief was knowing that we have confidence that this person knows what they're doing and we can rely on them and not have to stress out researching laws and stuff about how we do accounting."
Beyond the financial expertise, Trisha brought operational improvements that the team didn't even know they needed. Paper expense reports with stapled receipts gave way to digitized credit card workflows. Hand-written checks were largely replaced with Bill.com, today around 95% of payments flow through it, and Christina rarely has to touch QuickBooks except to pull a report.
Just as importantly, Trisha became a partner in Christina's own learning curve. As Christina pursued her MBA and grew into more of the financial side of operations, Trisha met every question with patience and curiosity rather than judgment.
"She was very kind and caring and patient with me as I was learning the ropes, and she was also learning the ropes of our church. She was super responsive with email, which I needed during that season for sure."
When it came time for Trisha to transition into a new role, she set Journey Church up for continuity: documenting processes, recording tutorials, and remaining available to answer the new bookkeepers' questions. Today, Christina works with BELAY Bookkeeper Tiffany, who serves several other church clients and brings a cross-organization perspective that Journey Church wouldn't otherwise have.
"That's the biggest help as we grow — knowing we won't get to the place where we were when we started with BELAY when we had grown but were stuck in old patterns and old ways. With Tiffany, we have outside resources and outside eyes looking at our systems to say, 'Why do you do it that way?'"
"Being able to put people first is one of the biggest benefits of working with BELAY. It's knowing that I have more time in my schedule to actually sit with people, talk with people, and value our employees and our congregation without feeling like I have a seriously long list of things to do."
— Christina Hayes, Director of OperationsThe Impact
Christina would say Journey Church saw results from their partnership with BELAY almost immediately, both financially and operationally.
"In terms of budget and finance, we could not have hired somebody with their level of expertise who lived here and worked in-office with us for that price. It would not have happened. So just in the first couple of months, being able to save on payroll but also increase the level of expertise that we had on our team was invaluable."
Over time, Christina has been able to delegate bookkeeping, payroll, and budget maintenance to her BELAY Bookkeeper, and the continuous BELAY support behind that means she doesn't have to keep up with every new payroll law or training herself.
"Knowing that Tiffany is supported, that BELAY keeps her trained and up to date on laws that are changing and all that stuff is so helpful. Just having somebody that you're confident is doing the training, doing the learning, and constantly growing is wonderful."
Most meaningfully, the partnership has freed Christina up to lead the way she most wants to, with people first, and with room to think strategically about where Journey Church is going next.
"Being able to put people first is one of the biggest benefits of working with BELAY. It's knowing that I have more time in my schedule to actually sit with people, talk with people, and value our employees and our congregation without feeling like I have a seriously long list of things to do. And then having the ability and time to think big-picture vision strategy, you can't do that if you're stuck in the weeds all day."
